Summit County Clerk of Courts Office evacuated; white powder was only a harmless sweetener

Friday

Aug 22, 2014 at 1:37 PM

by STeve wiandt | REPORTER

The Summit County Clerk of Courts Office was evacuated Friday morning, Aug. 22, until a HAZMAT team determined a white powder that came in the mail was only a sweetener and nothing harmful.

When an employee of the Clerk of Courts Office opened an envelope and found a white powdery substance, sheriff's deputies already on-scene evacuated the office around 10 a.m., Lt. Bill Holland, information officer for the Summit County Sheriff's Office, told the Cuyahoga Falls News-Press by phone.

Investigators from the Sheriff's Office were called in, along with the Akron Fire Department and HAZMAT team, Holland said.

The substance was tested and determined to be a harmless sweetener, he said. It was taken as evidence by Summit County crime scene investigators and everyone was let back into the office around 11:30 a.m., Holland said.

The envelope, which came from a state correctional institute, also had a note in it, Holland said, adding he couldn't say what was in the note or what prison it came from because this was an open investigation.